I am beginning to do scenery on my ATSF layout and have been pretty dissapointed with the selection of material from woodland scenics. I am modeling southern NM from Rincon to Deming and back up to Whitewater and Hurley. The stuff that Woodland Scenics offers for ground cover seems to be 1000 different shades of green but no browns. I also want sagebrushes and tumbleweeds. Does anybody out there have any experience with Desert Scenery that could offer me some advice?
I haven’t done desert, but I have come across a couple things.
Check Harold M’s site for making sagebrush.
Musket Minatures makes several different cactii.
I too model that area, Lordsburg sub of the SP. Woodland scenic fine yellow turf is nice for some areas, And alot of my layout is play sand from k-mart of all places. I dry it really well and glue it like any other ground cover. Using fake fur from a craft store for weeds etc. Look for Pele’s articles on desert railroad scenery. He’s a master and he lives in Denmark.
I’ve thought about the play sand. I will give that a shot. For my ballast in the yards I used “traction sand” that I had in tubes for weight in the back of my truck in the winter. I am happy with that. The fine yellow turf looks OK but I don’t want that all over the layout. Just in some areas and usually mixed in with other sand.
Why Capt. I believe you developed a stutter.
Yeah I mix and match alot of ballast like material through out my turf too. Lots of colors available that mix in well and give that rocky , sandy look. I’m origionally from El Paso , Tx. so I grew up in that area and really try to capture that look out there, The sagebrush is the hardest to make right. I still haven’t mastered that one.
Apparently a computer malfunction. And they wonder why I haven’t moved to DCC.
repeats deleted.
Can you post the link for Harold M’s site, I could sure use that info !!
The East end of my layout ends in El-Paso but that is just staging. My layout really begins at Rincon and ends at Silver City with trains being broken down and originating in Deming instead of Rincon as the SF did it. Plus I will have a SP interchange in Deming. Already collecting the rolling stock for that. My son and I took Amtrak to Albuquerque in May and drove down to pace the entire line. I took several hundred digital pics for scenery purposes. Also took panoramic pics that are blown up for my backdrop. They turned out much better than I would have expected. The largest backdrop is 2.5’ x 50’.
One thing that you may be able to answer, did the SP ever have any facilities in Deming? I know they had water and the passenger station but I would like to know if they had a round house or any loco’s assigned there.
I love that area and am thinking of going back next year…
At a craft store, I bought a bag of natural color lichen (tan) to use as tumbleweeds on my right-of-way. Also have used small cactus plants on my desert section.
Thanks CHIP !!
El Capitan, no I don’t think SP had any facilities in Deming. That’s why my home layout has a ficticious town thrown in to house said local items. I was just in Albuquerque last month and also last Nov. My Mom and Dad live in Rio Rancho , across the river there. Did you see the Rail Runner , really gaudy paint scheme. I take pix’s when I’m out there too. Took a bunch around Gallup last time out. Sante Fe has a good sized yard and such there.
Woodland Scenics does make some shades of their fiber (grass) material ranging from a nearly white yellow to a dark golden color, I’ve seen them in my LHSs. There are some real miniature cactus variaties…some I’ve seen as small as 1/2". There was an article…I think last year about using them on a layout. You could palnt them in something like a 35mm film canister and cut an appropriate sized hole in the surface to hold the canister. Nothing more convincing than the real thing!
underworld[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]
I just looked at Woodland Scenics website…they have two shades of their Field Grass that might interest you Natural Straw 
and Harvest Gold 
And three colors of Static Grass …Wild Honey 
Harvest Gold…just like the Field Grass and Burnt Grass 
The colors look much better in person.
underworld[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]
Hey guys,
Thought I’d share my experiences with ya’ll. I too was searching for the best way.
The single most thing that helped me get that “right” dessert look is using the Arizona Rock and Mineral brand of materials. I use Low Desrt Soil-#110-03 the most. I lay a base of Sculpt-a-mold-let dry. Then paint with my favorite light tan flat house paint, with some various shades of cheap acrylic paints to vary the colors and tones. Then I sprinkle the Low Desert Soil over the area. It’s realistic b/c it’s REAL dirt/sand/rock. You can get a real fine grade for roads, shoulders, foundations etc just by sprinkling through a plain old tea strainer. Than last, I use the Woodland scenic gound foam, I stick with the Burnt Grass, fine and coarse, the olive color , and earth-these have that dry-but still alive color that looks like that hearty desert scrub brush. I throgh a few of the Woodland Scenics talus-Nautural I think, the medium, and some Woodland Scenics weeds, Straw and Light Green for little weed patches.
I experimented for a while before I was satisfied. Later, I picked up Pelle’s book, checked out his methods and found I was not far off, mostly the same materials. And I also model Southern California, so I compared my stuff to his photos, and it’s good enough for me!!!
The key is the Arizona Rock and Mineral brand. It’s worth finding a supplier for that stuff.
Later
Rich
As a matter of fact while we were waiting for the chief for our return home the rail runner made a stop at the station. It wasn’t running in normal service, just a demo for local politians or something. Quite a treat. And yes, gaudy paint.
We did not make it to gallup. We did spend an entire day chasing trains from Belen through Abo canyon and into Mountainaire. The best railfanning I have ever done.
I had to freelance myself. The SF’s base of operations on the Deming sub was in Rincon. Larger trains going from Belen to El-Paso would drop off cars heading for the Deming sub in Rincon. A local would depart Rincon daily for Hurley and then return. They also had a small engine faclity in Rincon but I just couldn’t fit a nice size yard there so locals will depart from Deming on my layout.
Pelle Soeborgs book or the especially the articles in last years Model Railroader are fantastic reference for what you want. If you don’t have the back issues then try a local libraries.
Paul
This appears to be not entirely true:
http://www.cityofdeming.org/about.html
Here is a snippet:
Deming is the county seat of Luna County and was founded in November, 1881. Named for Mary Deming Crocker, wife of a railroad magnate of the Southern Pacific Railway system the town was the result of railroad expansion to the West. The Southern Pacific, building toward the Pacific coast, reached this point in late 1881, and made preperations for the construction of a round house and repair shops. This activity furnished the incentive for the erection of a city of tents and shanties. Six months later, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe completed its junction with the Southern Pacific at Deming, thus assuring Deming a prominence in the Southern part of New Mexico.
I don’t know how long what was there, but I expect there were facilities there through the steam era.
Very possible , being a diesel man, and not quite old enough to remember steam in that area I wouldn’t know that, I’ll look at Google earth and see what I can see there. Maybe remnants are visible from space. !! When I was a kid in El Paso , the yard there was always full of “F” units , got the ride one when I was about 12 , they took us through the engine cab and showed us the whole thing.(school trip). Those were the days.
This is interesting…because I am also building a BNSF southern Ca layout…most likely around Mojave although might be San Bernardino but it might be too ‘civilised’ and become too complicated…and Barstow has a complicated yard also…
Anyway, WS has various size Talus in sand colours and I find them quite good…or if not, Scene Master has a extensive range of ground cover in various shades of tan to brown but I would prefer using WS where possible.
Hope this helps but it’s also good to see some good ideas because I really want to make the layout I am building now the ‘proper’ one.